Farmer Protests Highlight India’s Growing Rural Distress
Vimla Yadav, a farmer from India's Haryana state, says agriculture costs, such as fertilizers and seeds, have soared, yet produce prices have plunged, leaving her family of 10 with virtually no profit from their four-acre farm. "We don't even get the fruits of the labor that the entire family puts in on the farm, although we slog day and night," she laments. Yadav is one of the tens of thousands of angry farmers from around the country who poured into the Indian capital recently, demanding a special session of parliament to discuss their demands:better prices for farm produce and a waiver by the government from repaying loans taken from banks. The protest highlighted the deepening distress among the population in the countryside, where there is growing concern about diminishing agricultural…